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Thursday, February 26, 2009

Thursday, February 26, 2009

You're right, Benoit; I'm guessing they didn't get that tip, either.

Nice to see that they understood that there was something important about the 12 bit, though. Do you suppose the wreckerator was putting that extra layer of icing on and wondering what the big deal was about the number 12, anyway?

Thank goodness that all fit, Diane V.; I don't know WHAT the decorator could have done to shorten the inscription. Do you?

(And fyi: Freymoto is a clever smash-up of the happy couple's last names. Nifty idea, no?)

Oh, dear lord, the non-English speaking wreckerator strikes again (trying to come up with a reasonable excuse for this) - at least the writing is nice? These mistakes had me "decorating" my computer screen with diet coke... Thanks, Jen, I needed that today!!! :)WV: inollin - If we use a "small" tip, we can get inollin more words.

Well, I guess you really can't have it all...beautiful cake, amazing penmanship...and a brain! *sigh*I do have to say, I'm a little confused about the purple swirly writting and the flower for "Jason" but uh...I'll just leave that one alone...

I still find it so hard to understand how decorators can be so stupid. I decorated for several years and if someone put that on a piece of paper my brain would know what to do with it. And if I had ANY question the person's phone number is always on the order form. Sheesh! I'm just flabbergasted!

This is my favourite kind of wreck, but my appreciation of them is dampened lately because I just can't believe that anyone would put that on a cake.

I envision instead a little horde of Wreckporters ordering cakes as ambiguously as possible and when asked for clarification claiming that yes thay DO want it on the cake, "It's an in-joke."

The worst I've seen is a t-shirt for a "D + D" tournament and it turned out that they printed exactly what was on the form. The person who did the ordering didn't know how to draw an ampersand and thought the t-shirt printers would magically know to convert her plus to one. Now I know we're lucky the t-shirt didn't say "instead of plus put an ampersand" at the bottom.

that would of been the best cake ever made. Fred Smilek is the acting president of the Society to Save Endangered Species. It was founded two years ago by Fred Smilek along with his two best friends Charles and Jonathan. http://www.fredjsmilek.com

This is definitely my favourite kind of wreck. Ugly cakes are just ugly, but ones like this - and like the "one that started it all" - just reek of a whole other level of idiocy altogether. So, so funny.

I'm pretty jaded and, in general, nothing really surprises me, especially examples of human stupidity. However, these literal cake inscriptions always make my jaw drop. I love it when you post them -- in a gawking at a car wreck kind of way -- but OMG are there some stupid people out there.

How do the wreckerators make it thru life on a day to day basis?? Are they the ones who try to blow dry their hair in the tub? or iron clothes on their bodies?Are bakeries hiring illegals who do not read english?

Um, yeah, meant to add... if the purple, flowers and name are all good, as others have mentioned, it's a shame that such a beautiful cake was spoiled by the literal mistake (which surely can't have been deliberate).And the <3 one... oh dear...

Well, this is funny, really it is!! But the Wreckerators just write what is on that little piece of paper that they are told to copy, verbatim. The real dummies, of course, are the people who order the cakes...THEY are the ones who presumably are supposed to speak/write understandable English. If I were a Wreckerator, at minimum wage, I would do the same thing. And so would you.

thats a classic, put heat in place of word love! I must admit, I was guilty of the same thing once crazily writing card messages for flowers on valentines day, I wrote lol instead of lots of love, luckily we caught it berfore it went out!I always look forward to your latest posts, it makes a crappy day great.

I LOVE the literal lols! You know, it took me about 5 minutes before I worked out what the writing said on BOTH cakes...the writings were so...swirly. Unless "Jason" was a girl, I'd feel really bad for the kid for that pretty flower and PURPLE lettering... (you know what they say about purple, eh? lol) As for the second one, the decorator obviously decided they'd try to fit everything in O_o

The first cake looks really nice from a distance, until you read the inscription. When I first read it, I suspected that the buyer meant they'd give the baker/decorator a big tip if delivered by 12pm/am... you know, sort of an incentive to get it in early or on time?

Ahhh, I love these - good old fashion wrecks. The candles adding up to thirteen are too funny. Although a thirteen-year-old would know what a wreck the cake is, so that's too bad. At least when the cakes are for little kids, only the parents are disappointed.

When I see these beautiful-but-literal cakes, I can't help thinking what kind of wrecks I would have made if I'd had to write inscriptions on cakes in Finnish before I really spoke the language well. I suspect I would have made cakes very similar to these... except mine would not have been as beautifully decorated.

Thank you Margaret for pointing out that *some* 12-years-old boys named Jason might actually like the purple flower. It's a refreshing change from the "Happy Birthday with Violent Superhero" macho crap that so many parents seem to think is the ONLY acceptable boy cake. -Robin the Catlady

Cakes aside (and these are hilarious and tremendously sad), it disturbs me that so many comments have indicated surprise or disbelief that a cake with purple writing and a purple flower could be for a guy. First off, I would suggest that you all take a look at what male teens are wearing these days. (I know, I teach high school.) Pink is no longer verboten, sneakers come in all colors of the rainbow, etc. And hasn't society gotten to a point where colors don't indicate anything? As a girl, I always wanted a blue birthday cake when I was a kid, but way back then it was considered unusual. We're in the 21st century, folks; purple is far from feminine. And does that mean there is only one acceptable color for a guy's cake--blue? Is red OK? Green? What about orange? What makes a color a masculine color anyway?

--Lisa

WV--nonolesa: what I heard when I asked for a blue birthday cake as a little girl. (My name is Lisa!)

I can't believe this cake is real. I worked at a bakery. Several people are involved in the cake-making process. First, there is the person writing the cake order. Second, the cake decorator looks at the order to make sure nothing is misspelled or confusing to them. Third, the same cake decorator (or a different one) puts the icing on. Finally, all the envious/bored clerks look at their cakes.

I <3 this blog, and this post is the absolute best! I've passed it along... As a family tradition, I make ridiculous cakes ala the groom's cake in Steel Magnolias--remember the bloody armadillo--? My son had a Mike Mulligan themed 3rd birthday in which his father made a steam shovel platform with working shovel (pulley and string) in our woodshop, for which I created a custom cake with appropriately dirty icing (Oreo crumbles). Voila, Marianne! The trend seems to be that the more eye rolls I get from the other moms, the more my son likes the cake. Really, this is now one of my favorite blogs, thank you.

Whenever cakes like these are featured I assume they're phone orders-- and the person taking the order isn't paying much attention and/or is waaaay too literal. It just seems like lost translation between the verbal and the visual. For that reason alone they are my very favorite wrecks.

Also, it's really amusing that the number of comments that assert the wreckers must be non-native english speakers are equal to the number of comments where the poster doesn't understand the wreck or why it's funny. (Jason is not turning 12, people.)

Too Funny! I wish I still had a picture of the birthday cake my then-fiance ordered for my 19th birthday. He wanted "Happy Birthday Anna" in red. Instead, Dairy Queen wrote "Happy Birthday Red" on it, and then to rectify the situation (instead of comping it or making a new one) they poured dip-cone chocolate all over the "red". It was downright sexy.

Yeeaaahhh, i'm not sure what the big hubbub is about a male having a cake with purple frosting and–gasp!–a flower drawn on it. You'd think we should have to put a wrench or a tractor on every cake that's not for a girl. Let me guess: you all dressed your girl babies in pink and the boys in blue, right? As someone who likes cake, period, let me tell you something: it doesn't really matter what the cake looked like after it's been eaten and enjoyed.

Chillax.

and p.s.) in regards to someone's comment "are they hiring illegals at bakeries these days?": yes, probably, but at the one i worked at, we hired LEGALS as well, who sometimes spoke English as a second language. Don't let it frighten you too much, i'm sure you'll never have to speak a foreign language if you really don't want to.

Ooh! I think the couple were Anime fans, because anime fans always come up with mashups of their favorite pairing's names so that other lolsp33k friends can understand them. Ex: SakuNaru (sakura+naruto), Amuto (Amu+Ikuto), etc...

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What's a Wreck?

What's a Wreck?

A Cake Wreck is any cake that is unintentionally sad, silly, creepy, inappropriate - you name it. A Wreck is not necessarily a poorly-made cake; it's simply one I find funny, for any of a number of reasons. Anyone who has ever smeared frosting on a baked good has made a Wreck at one time or another, so I'm not here to vilify decorators: Cake Wrecks is just about finding the funny in unexpected, sugar-filled places.

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